Hi,
Can anyone suggest the best way to "herd" a wild mantis?
Last summer on a green campus, I more than once noticed a large wild mantis just sitting on heavily used stairs, or on the ground in an active parking lot. Dangerous.
Both times I tried to motion or shoo it along, or onto my hand to deposit it somewhere safer, but they preferred to hold their ground and challenge me! Tempted, but was afraid of injuring them by picking them up at the thorax.
Any suggestions if it happens this year? (Besides carrying a net everywhere…)
-Glad I found this forum
---my mantis history---
Kept a wild-caught mantis each summer I was fortunate to find one when I was a kid. Fed mostly wild-caught flies here in the city. Friends would come to watch at feeding time. One used to call the fly-eyes meatballs and the legs spaghetti as they were consumed.
Although I cringe at the practice when thinking about it now, when no live food was available for an extended period in the Fall, I more than once got one mantis to eat a wiggled strip of bologna. (Hey I was seven.) She survived well into winter indoors.
When I was a bit older and not enough greenery around locally to find any, I got a Carolina biological catalog from school and ordered an egg case along with a starter culture of apterous Drosophila. Hatchlings were happy enough with the flies not to eat each other (that much) until I could release most of them. Of course kept a couple as pets. They seemed to do fine with mostly pet-store crickets. I always was leery of mealworms so I used to select softer freshly molted ones - but there was no rational basis for that. I'm sure I'll find more food tips on this forum.
Thinking of doing it again this summer to show some little ones what I think is the most regal insect of them all. And fun for me too.
Can anyone suggest the best way to "herd" a wild mantis?
Last summer on a green campus, I more than once noticed a large wild mantis just sitting on heavily used stairs, or on the ground in an active parking lot. Dangerous.
Both times I tried to motion or shoo it along, or onto my hand to deposit it somewhere safer, but they preferred to hold their ground and challenge me! Tempted, but was afraid of injuring them by picking them up at the thorax.
Any suggestions if it happens this year? (Besides carrying a net everywhere…)
-Glad I found this forum
---my mantis history---
Kept a wild-caught mantis each summer I was fortunate to find one when I was a kid. Fed mostly wild-caught flies here in the city. Friends would come to watch at feeding time. One used to call the fly-eyes meatballs and the legs spaghetti as they were consumed.
Although I cringe at the practice when thinking about it now, when no live food was available for an extended period in the Fall, I more than once got one mantis to eat a wiggled strip of bologna. (Hey I was seven.) She survived well into winter indoors.
When I was a bit older and not enough greenery around locally to find any, I got a Carolina biological catalog from school and ordered an egg case along with a starter culture of apterous Drosophila. Hatchlings were happy enough with the flies not to eat each other (that much) until I could release most of them. Of course kept a couple as pets. They seemed to do fine with mostly pet-store crickets. I always was leery of mealworms so I used to select softer freshly molted ones - but there was no rational basis for that. I'm sure I'll find more food tips on this forum.
Thinking of doing it again this summer to show some little ones what I think is the most regal insect of them all. And fun for me too.
